CeX Weston-super-Mare Café - Gaming Café Kit Out

Being based in the south west of England, many members of the Home Leisure Direct team are very familiar with the sights and sounds of many of our local traditional seaside resorts. The sea… The sand… The sun… (well, possibly not so much the latter in some cases, but you know what we mean!)

One of these locations is of course Weston-super-Mare, located on the North Somerset coast. Not far from our showrooms in Bristol, we were very excited to become part of an exciting new project happening in the very centre of the small seaside town. The high street is home to Weston’s CeX trade-in shop, but a CeX trade-in shop quite unlike any other. Alongside all of the second hand games, movies, electronics and games consoles is a very special space at the top of the shop: A gaming café.

Whilst the concept of arcade bars and cafés (or ‘bar-cades’) was originally pioneered in the states, the idea has really kicked off in this country with plenty of venues appearing up and down the country. These venues allow patrons to enjoy a drink and something to eat, before racking up a high score on any of the machines that are available! It shouldn’t be any surprise that we love our games at Home Leisure, but we’re also never ones to say no to a good cuppa and a slice of cake too! As you can expect, the prospect of crossing these two loves to bring a new venue to life made us very excited.

Members of our team had the chance to call by the new café ahead of the installation, and it really is a stunning space. Located in the middle of the upper floor of the shop, patrons are treated to cocktail arcade machines, large projection screens playing the latest games, glass cases with consoles of the past and of course plenty of tasty treats to enjoy. Combined with the fantastic aesthetics (like a glass table supported by old Macintosh computers and VHS cassette tape lights) what better place to do your shopping!

This awesome venue came to Home Leisure Direct to make their already beautiful games space even more feature packed, and we were only too happy to oblige. One early Wednesday morning in May 2016, the Home Leisure Direct team descended upon the Weston store to kit the place out. After a lot shimmying large items up the flight of stairs to the café, everything was put in place, tested and good to go...

Customers can now enjoy several new machines, including a new Donkey Kong styled multi-game arcade cabinet with a collection of numerous different arcade classics (including Donkey Kong, Galaga, Zaxxon and Pacman amongst numerous others), One of STERN Pinball’s most celebrated pinball machines: The Simpsons’ Pinball Pinball Party, the futuristic SEGA shoot-em-up Ghost Squad, a large custom made neon sign and finally a brand new Sound Leisure Rocket 88 CD jukebox to pump decades worth of tunes into the venue.

The installation was a huge success, and it was a joy installing all these great machines, and we were proud to hear that the team at CeX Weston and their customers are having a great time playing too!

We would also love to extend a big thanks to S&S Installations of Weston-super-Mare for giving us a hand with this big project: Your stair lift and capable hands were invaluable, and made light work of what would have been a very tricky installation! Check out our installation here:

Will any of you be calling by Weston-super-Mare in the near future on your holidays? Drop by the CeX on the high street to check it out! We can’t wait to drop by for a drink and a round of games soon!